Evaluating frameworks for decision support regarding sustainability of circular economy within the built environment

Evaluating frameworks for decision support regarding sustainability of circular economy within the built environment

The use of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) has led to a paradox in the construction industry. As the industry gains more experience with the application of LCAs, the complexity of the questions need to be addressed by LCAs rises, thereby increasing the scale and complexity of the systems under assessment. As a result, large systems like CE models for the built environment are often evaluated in the same way as individual buildings and building components, even though CE models have a higher potential to produce feedback effects. This means that the system being evaluated changes due to the entity/service being evaluated.

Questioning the assessment methodology’s viability for environmental decision support in the built environment, considering LCAs in particular, this project investigates how the current framework for environmental assessments might be insufficient for the transitional agenda, and whether other theoretical LCA approaches could overcome these limitations. Hypothesizing that current assessments methods may not uncover impacts or consequences caused by new circular designs when scaling solutions to industry/sector scale, a proof-of-concept shows how alternative LCA approaches change decisions support and conclusions.

While presenting assessments of shortcomings in revealing environmental implications and in assessment methods more generally, the project also presents case studies that illustrate how the applied LCA method and system boundaries impact coherent decision support and its.

This project also delves into the questions: Why do we evaluate nearly all systems in a ‘static’ way despite being fully aware that we live in a dynamic world; and are we adequately addressing the need to improve the accuracy of the models we develop within LCAs in a practical and sufficient way?

The project preliminarily shows that other LCA approaches and system boundaries can enhance decision support, highlighting issues and aspects not addressed in our current assessments in the built environment.